


Breakthrough

by FanGirlyGlee



Series: Legends Vignettes [8]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-07 04:33:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14072976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanGirlyGlee/pseuds/FanGirlyGlee
Summary: Mick finally let's Leo in, and has an epiphany





	Breakthrough

When it became clear that Leo wasn’t going to go away quietly, Mick resigned himself to the fact that they were going to have to have a _talk_.  Whether it would be purely a verbal interaction or involve fists was up in the air.  Still, he wasn’t going to make it easy for the touchy-feely do-gooder.  And God help him if he interfered with the beer again. 

Mick was having a beer in the library one evening when Leo found him.  He stood in the doorway, arms crossed. 

‘Fine’, thought Mick.  ‘Let’s get this over with.’

“What do you want, Not Snart?”

“Mick, you know I can’t leave until you and I tear down this wall that’s between us.  It’s unfinished business.”

Mick rubbed his head and sighed.  “That’s the problem.  **_You_** and me got no business.  I don’t know you.”

“That’s partly true, but I feel I could help you somehow, if you would just let me.”  He stood still, just waiting, which for some reason was worse than when he was talking.

“Why?” Mick found himself asking.  “Why won’t you just quit?  Like it ain’t hard enough…”

Leo cocked his head to one side, seemingly surprised he’d actually gotten Mick to respond.  Mick thought he was probably going to regret it, but he’d been holding in his anger for so long if he didn’t let some of it out things were gonna explode when he looked at them.  “It’s so easy for you.  You smile, make some smooth joke, and never think about how it’s different for other people.”

“People like you, Mick?”

“Look at me.” He said angrily.  “I know what people think – what they expect.  This…” he said gesturing toward himself.  “Makes people cross the street.  Can’t just slide in wherever I want - not like you. Don’t see me asking people out for coffee or whatever you’re supposed to do when you want to know somebody new.”

Leo nodded.  “You perceive that I, and by extension Leonard, am or was able to behave in ways that were closed off to you.  We enjoyed freedom, whereas you believe you have to hide.  Did Leonard not have any sympathy for you in that regard?”

Mick stood up and kicked the chair away.  “Would have laughed himself to death thinking about me trying to be _normal_.  Probably laughing right now….talking to a computer about my problems…tryin’ to have a little bit of nice.”

“Ray’s nice,” Leo pointed out. “Really most of your team is.”

“They can’t understand.”  Mick spoke with painful certainty.

“Listen, I know I’m not Leonard any more than you’re my Micky, though I see so much of him in you.  I meant what I said.  I want to help.  Consider me a stand-in.  Say what you need to say – what you didn’t get to say to him.”

Mick was legitimately frightened of how badly he needed to keep talking.  “That first day in Juvie - you told people I saved you from a beating.  But that wasn’t the whole story.  You know what would have happened if I’d just walked away and left you with those animals.  You weren’t like me.  Your skin wasn’t hard enough yet.  They would have torn you apart.”

“I owed you for that.”

“You’re damn right you owed me!” Mick roared.  “You owed it to me to get tough, not take shit off anybody, and live to show them all you were smarter and better.”  Mick was shaking.  It was batshit crazy to be telling Leo all this.  But it was better than trying to explain it to Gideon, hiding it from everyone else, and screaming at empty spaces in the dark.   “And you did get better, but I didn’t.  I didn’t know how.  Sure you felt sorry for me when I was bad off, like when I got burned.  But you let people think…” Mick got choked.   “You manipulated me and you let other people think we were together _like that_ because having me on a chain made you look like even more of a badass.  I hated you for that.  I hated that I needed you because I didn’t know how to be.”

Leo steepled his fingers together, putting together the pieces of a complicated puzzle in his head.  “You didn’t save young Leonard so he would be forever grateful and need you by his side.  You did it so he wouldn’t _become_ you.  You already thought you were so damaged you could never be anything else.  But because of you he didn’t have as much pain to carry.  He could be a better man someday.”

“He didn’t…he was…he left me behind.”  Mick’s breath was coming in gasps and he felt light headed. 

Leo stepped closer.  “Don’t quit on me now, Mick.  You’re close.  I can see it.  Leonard got to live a better life, and died a better man.  Why did he take your place?”

Mick tried to turn and walk away but the room was spinning.  He put a hand out, grasping at the, and then fell to the floor on his hands and knees.  His heart was racing.  “He-he saw.  He finally saw why I did it.  _I_ didn’t even know why I did it until after he was gone! He wanted me have a chance to be better too.”  He pounded the floor with his fists.  “I didn’t care. I was ready to die.  You could have let me do that one last thing for you.  You were my best friend.  You left me alone and I don’t know how to do this.”

Mick could feel the tears pouring out and the snot building up in his sinuses.  It hurt so much.  He could barely whisper.  “Gideon, I’m dying.”    

It was probably Mick’s imagination, but the AI sounded almost sad when she said, “No, Mister Rory, you are not.  You are not even having a panic attack.” 

Leo sat down on the floor next to Mick and handed him a handkerchief.  “You’re healing,” he said. 

Mick rolled onto his back and blew his nose.  “Feelings suck.”

Leo chuckled.  “Well, no one said being a whole person was easy.  For some it’s harder than others.”

“Lucky me.”  They sat in silence until Mick pushed himself up to where he was sitting, shoulders slumped.  His whole body felt like lead.   
“You win, Leo,” he declared dully. 

“It wasn’t a contest, you big lump.  I saw that I could help so I did.”

Mick blew his nose again and pocketed the handkerchief.  “That’s what good people do, right?”

“So I’ve heard.”

“You wanna go get a beer?”

Leo took a deep breath, and Mick braced himself for a lecture.

“I’d love to have a beer with you, Mick.” 


End file.
